Tony Schumacher raced to his third Top Fuel victory of the season Sunday, beating Doug Kalitta in the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.
“To be back in the points lead is outstanding,” said Schumacher, who now leads Antron Brown by 45 points. “We started this year with everyone telling us we’d probably never win another race. To be sitting here now with three wins in the first eight races is very satisfying, I’m not going to lie. Our team is working so well right now. I don’t think there’s a guy on this team that would rather be somewhere else. It’s a group that wants to get up in the morning and go racing.” USA Today
That three-tenths of a second Schumacher mentioned was his margin of victory in Sunday’s final run against veteran Doug Kalitta. Both drivers now have three career victories at Thunder Valley.
“To meet Kalitta in the finals … I cannot stress enough how great it is to race him,” Schumacher said. “We have so much history battling [between] ourselves. It was like that again today.”
“NHRA is putting out some outstanding drag races right now,” Schumacher said. “The races we’re winning – even the races we’re losing – are less than half a car length. Fans are getting their money’s worth. So are the sponsors. You’ve got to step up and drive the car well, and the crew [members] have to do their jobs, because the cars are very even.”
Though he’s the five-time defending Top Fuel champion, Schumacher was expected to possibly slip some this season because of a wholesale change in his support team. Long-time crew chief Alan Johnson left to help form the Al-Anabi team with drivers Del Worsham and Larry Dixon, and Mike Green took over as crew chief for Schumacher.
Schumacher might be back in the points lead, but he made it clear that he’s not about to take it easy. He and his team are staying an extra day in Bristol, where they will use one of the four testing days they are allowed by the NHRA. Bristol Herald Courier
In Funny Car, Del Worsham saved his best run for last to win his second straight race.
Worsham backed up his win in St. Louis with a 4.075 E.T. in Sunday’s final against Tony Pedregon, the best pass of the weekend by a Funny Car. After battling track temperatures north of 120 degrees Saturday, an overcast day Sunday left the track temperature at an ideal 82 degrees and Worsham took full advantage.
“Yesterday we ran on a very hot track,” he said. “When I saw the forecast and saw that it was going to cool down, it kind of played into our hands with our setup right now.”
Worsham closed in on points leader Ron Capps, who bowed out to Pedregon in the quarterfinals. Capps now holds a 57-point lead over Worsham.
Top qualifier Mike Edwards shook off his recent string of shaky Sunday performances by beating Greg Anderson in the finals of the Pro Stock division.
Edwards laid down a 6.633-second pass in the finals — the lowest elapsed time of the weekend in the division — to outpace Anderson.
“I don’t know what to say,” Edwards said. “I can’t believe we ran this good — it seems like we just got better every run. Eight runs and we were the fastest car every time down the track.”
Edwards now sits third in the Pro Stock points standings behind leader Jeg Coughlin and second- place Line. Coughlin had another solid weekend, advancing through to the semifinals before falling to Anderson. Kingsport Times News
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